Experts today said DNA tests confirm that a body exhumed from a Bucharest cemetery in July is that of the communist-era dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Dan Dermengiu, director of the National Institute for Forensic Medicine, said he had reached his conclusions after comparing DNA samples taken from the body with others from Ceausescu's brother and his son.

Ceausescu was ousted and executed with his wife, Elena, after a summary trial during the 1989 anticommunist revolt.

Many had doubts that the couple were really buried in the Ghencea military cemetery in Bucharest.

Valentin Ceausescu, a 62-year-old nuclear physicist, said the test results had finally cleared up lingering doubts.